1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and the like that use a print job including setting information and print data and generate drawing data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is what is called “production printing” for printing and binding a huge amount of commercial documents (see Patent Document 1, for example). Patent Document 1 discloses a printing system capable of notifying a user of whether a post process is available in consideration of an entire portion of the printing system.
In production printing, a printing process is often handled as a workflow. There is a trend of opening printing workflows. Through opening, it is possible for software (a workflow application described below) and printing devices of various companies to describe setting of print jobs in a main process of printing in a common description method. A standard format called “Job Definition Format” (JDF) is known as a format for describing an entire portion of the printing workflow.
The printing workflow has various types of processes such as creation of a document or contents, specification of a printing method, printing, and post processing. Although each process is performed by various workflow applications and printing devices, the JDF enables cooperation between the printing devices, printing process management, and the like irrespective of difference of the workflow applications and difference of manufacturers of the printing devices.
However, each workflow application or printing device may extend the JDF. In this case, the JDF created by the workflow application of a company may include a description specific to the workflow application.
FIG. 1A is an example of a diagram illustrating a problem when a print processing device of company C receives a print job. It is noted that FIG. 1A is a comparative example rather than related art. The print processing device of company C receives a print job from workflow applications of companies A and B. Since each workflow application extended each JDF, this may lead to a situation where the print processing device of company C cannot analyze or process the extended JDF.
In order to handle a print job of each workflow application, the printing processing of company C may have a rendering engine (hereafter an “RIP engine”) installed, which supports conversion of JDF and each workflow application. In FIG. 1B, a JDF analyzing portion 56 analyzes the JDF to identify a manufacturer of a workflow application that created the JDF and converts the JDF into setting information that can be handled by the print processing device of company C. Further, by having RIP engines that support each workflow application, it is possible to print a print job created by each workflow application with finishing as expected by a user.
However, since there are various manufacturers of workflow applications, print jobs that are assumed to be rendered by the RIP engine included in the print processing device of company C are not always input.
FIG. 2A is an example of a diagram illustrating a problem when a print job for an RIP engine that is not included in the print processing device of company C is input. In this example, company D is assumed to be a manufacturer of a workflow application other than companies A to C. The workflow application of company D inputs a print job to the print processing device of company C.
Even if the JDF analyzing portion 56 analyzes a JDF of the print job created by the workflow application of company D, the JDF analyzing portion 56 cannot identify company D. Accordingly, the JDF analyzing portion 56 converts the JDF into setting information for an RIP engine of company A. In this case, it is assumed that because the JDF created by the workflow application of company D is not substantially different from a JDF created by a workflow application of company A, the JDF created by the workflow application of company D is converted into setting information appropriate for the RIP engine of company A.
However, even if the JDF created by the workflow application of company D is converted into setting information that can be handled by the RIP engine of company A, an output result may be different. In other words, the JDF and Page Description Language (PDL) are input as a print job from the workflow application to the print processing device of company C. In accordance with this, even if the JDF is correctly converted, it may not be possible to obtain an output result expected by a user depending on an attribute set in the PDL of company D.
FIG. 2B is a diagram showing an example of a case where an output result expected by the user cannot be obtained. An upper portion of FIG. 2B shows an output result expected by the user, namely, an output result if an RIP engine of company D performs rendering, for example. A lower portion of FIG. 2B shows an output result if an RIP engine of company A performs rendering.
In each output result, raster data for three pages is output from a print job of company D. While the same output results are obtained on page 1 and page 2, output results (fonts) are different on page 3.
This is because font information set in the PDL of page 3 by the workflow application of company D is not supported by the RIP engine of company A.
In this manner, depending on an attribute set in a PDL, an output result expected by the user may not be obtained by merely converting a JDF appropriately. Further, even if an output result expected by the user can be obtained by using one of RIP engines because the JDF is appropriately converted and the print processing device of company C includes a plurality of RIP engines, there is another problem in that a mechanism for selecting a suitable RIP engine has not been prepared.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2012-238188